Daily Archives: January 19, 2011

A Victory for El Segundo Residents and Residential Property Owners (House or Two Units)

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Mike

by Michael D. Robbins
Director, Public Safety Project, PublicSafetyProject.org

January 19, 2011

Congratulations! We won again! Thank you for sending in your Proposition 218 Trash Fee Protest Ballots before the deadline. A total of 1,850 unverified protest ballots were sent to City Hall, and only a total of 1,439 verified protest ballots were needed to defeat the new residential trash collection fee. The City Council voted 3-2 at its January 18, 2011 meeting, to accept the unverified protest ballots as sufficient without having the City Clerk’s staff spend the time to open all the envelopes, verify that the ballots were properly completed and signed, and count the valid ones that are not duplicates from owners and tenants of the same property.

City Council member Don Brann made the motion to accept the unverified protest ballots as sufficient. Mayor Eric Busch tried to ignore the motion and said that the City Clerk would come back to the City Council with the results after the protest ballots were verified and counted. Council member Don Brann caught this apparent maneuver to avoid a vote and move on to the next agenda item, and he stated that he made a motion. Council member Carl Jacobson seconded the motion for discussion. After brief discussion, Council member Don Brann asked for a vote. Mayor Eric Busch and Mayor Pro Tem Bill Fisher voted “NO”, and Council members Don Brann, Carl Jacobson, and Suzanne Fuentes voted “Yes” on the motion.
This vote by mail election used a strange system where properties for which no Protest Ballot is completed, signed, and returned before the deadline COUNT AS YES VOTES, and Protest Ballots from both the owner and tenant(s) of the same property COUNT AS ONLY ONE NO VOTE.

The first year of the trash fee would have cost residents an estimated $560,700, which is less than the estimated $596,657 total compensation paid to former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings in 2009 from all sources – including his city contract and pension income while working for the city after his retirement. This is an enormous amount of compensation for any city, but especially for the City of El Segundo, California, which has about 5.5 square miles and about 16,000 or 17,000 population. … Continue reading →

Posted in California, El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, El Segundo News, El Segundo Tax and Fee Increases, Elections, Firefighter and Police Union Compensation and Pensions, Fraud Waste and Abuse, Government Employee Compensation and Pensions, News, Political Corruption, Politics, Tax Policy and Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A Victory for El Segundo Residents and Residential Property Owners (House or Two Units)

Everyone in El Segundo must defeat the greatest threat facing our city – the firefighters union initiative

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Mike

All El Segundo residents and business owners must work even harder to defeat the greatest threat facing our city and our safety – the firefighters union initiative. If their union initiative passes, we will permanently lose our Paramedic Transport Service, and depend on out-of-town ambulances with increased hospital transport times and fees. This is dangerous for everybody who lives, works, or does business in El Segundo, but it is especially dangerous for the elderly in our city. Almost all of the fire department calls are paramedic calls. El Segundo has few fire, and zero, one, or two major structure fires (with $100,000 in damage or more) per year.

The El Segundo City Council will decide at its February 15, 2011 meeting which election date the very dangerous firefighters union initiative will appear on the ballot for El Segundo voters. Continue reading →

Posted in California, El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, El Segundo News, Elections, Firefighter and Police Union Compensation and Pensions, Firefighter Union Corruption, Government Employee Compensation and Pensions, Measure P - Firefighters Union Initiative, Political Corruption, Politics, Union Corruption | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Everyone in El Segundo must defeat the greatest threat facing our city – the firefighters union initiative